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Mens doubles. Blind spot for non-server.

Hi all,

My partner and I are recognising problems in our serving.

I am tall relative to him and he is wide relative to me.

What we find is that when we are serving on the odd side of the court, the person standing behind cannot see the shuttle when its returned by the opponents. Making it very difficult to react / anticipate the next shot.

Any tips on how to combat this? I find that I position myself so as to leave a large gap on nmy backhand side which the opponents can exploit. I'm less bothered about them doing it on the forehand side, since I can get out of trouble in all kinds of ways on that side. If I move over to my right, to enable me to see the shuttle, I'll leave the backhand side too open.

i also have this issue, i was told to stand in the same place you would normally but lean over to your forehand side so you can still see but you're still closer to the backhand. or try askign your partner to stand slightly to the backhand side when serving.

Am not sure of the 'right' answer here, but I have a few observations:

1. This is another example of how valuable a good serve is. The higher the elevation of your opponent's return, the slower they'll have to play it & the less of an issue this will be.

2. Not enough servers prepare themselves to hit the 3rd shot. I was taught to split-drop immediately after serve, expecting a push/drive. Using the string bed to protect my face, a simple prod is usually enough to either force a lift or sometimes hit a winner. Even if I don't intercept, I'm less of an obstruction for my partner because I'm lower.

3. Presuming you're all right-handers, you can try occasionally serving to the center of the opponent's box. I.e. halfway between center-line and outer side-line. Adds a bit of variety and deals with the sight-line issue.

4. Service is an opportunity for set-plays. For example, you can agree that the server will move a step to the forehand after the serve and their partner take a step to the backhand. If your opponent has a particular returning weakness, you can turn the first 3/5 shots of the rally to your advantage.

Hope that helps. Remember, a low serve is a vulnerable shot. The server shall always be protecting their face with the racket.

Some players like to stand with their body parallel to the net, not usually a problem if you're slim and tall but if you have wide shoulders if can obscure your partners view. I have fairly broad shoulders for my height, so I tend to serve with my body at a slight angle to the net to reduce this.

Also, point 2 above is worth reiterating. I see so many servers leave their partners to retrieve the 3rd shot even though they could have got it themselves - if they had their racquet up and anticipated. Admittedly most decent returns are difficult for the server to get, but if you can act as the "first line of defense" by covering some angles, it puts pressure on the opponents return.

Good responses. Thanks all. Being especially conscious of it I tried not standing so square-on to the net whilst serving. Instead I positioned myself more at an angle, whilst still being able to serve to the opponents 'T'.

This worked except when I rushed the net to attempt to put the opponent off simply dropping my serve back over the net and forcing me to lift. I guess I need to work on that final bit more. Covering the net-drop, whilst still allowing partner to see opponents make contact with shuttle.

It may be comforting for people to know that many players at my club, including the club coach, did not have a definitive answer on this.

Some people suggested altering the starting position ever so slightly (partner leans to the right and server, moves to the left), whereas others suggested the split-drop technique suggested above (although I think that leaves you even more vulnerable to a net-drop return).

I'd also like to point out that this isn't usually a problem for 'bad serves'. If the serve is that bad then I can usually see it, even if I won't have a cat-in-hell's chance of returning the return. Its the good serves that pose the problem where they are taken low and opponent uses deception in the return. Its in those cases where I need maximum visibility in order to deal with the return.

to bloody long. Heres your answer and this is going to work you wonders. tell him to lose weight. Lol nah in all seriousness: Dont serve where ur bloody standing, SImple!. If your serving, make an effort to serve not exactly parallel to your position... serve it on an angle, so when the return comes in, you can see the shuttle.

Depending on how tall you are, this could be a good answer... but you could always stand closer to your partner. This way, you'll be able to see over him and see where the serve return goes. This requires that you are fast enough to either make it to the edges for the drive off of the serve, and/or you have the ability to cut them off. IDK if this is good advice, but in professional badminton, the back person usually stands halfway to the back. If the opponent takes it below your vision (where your partner is blocking it), considering you're tall, it's probably a high lift.

By any means, the front player should be standing as tall as he can and cover as much as possible. Put pressure on the opponent, that's your job as the front player.

By keeping a low stance, you can hit the shuttle above your head, if the legs are strong enough to move quickly at that stance and stand up to get those relatively higher but short lifts or just leave them for the smasher, my opinion only.

What we find is that when we are serving on the odd side of the court, the person standing behind cannot see the shuttle when its returned by the opponents. Making it very difficult to react / anticipate the next shot.

Any tips on how to combat this? I find that I position myself so as to leave a large gap on nmy backhand side which the opponents can exploit. I'm less bothered about them doing it on the forehand side, since I can get out of trouble in all kinds of ways on that side. If I move over to my right, to enable me to see the shuttle, I'll leave the backhand side too open.

Thanks for listening.

Stand in the middle. you will be able to see everything. if opponent clears into your backhand you should have plenty time to get to it. if opponent drives into your backhand, the front person should have intercepted it. if you stand to the left of the court you leave the right hand side open to drops/drives as both of you are standing on the left.

Look at the attachment, that's how Markis Kido stands when Hendra Setiawan is serving. Markis is a fairly short player and Hendra a taller player. Them being into the olympic finals is a clear statement that Kido was able to see the service returns